December 21, 2015

Progressive Rock Review: Gazpacho-Molok

Originally
appearing back in 1996 the Norwegian band, Gazpacho, has gone from strength to
strength and has now released studio album no 9, Molok. The debut album, Bravo,
appeared in 2003 and the band has released an album every 1-2 years since, so
have maintained a steady output of excellent material. Molok follows on fairly quickly from the critically acclaimed, Demon, from 2014, and takes the band
another step up on the progressive ladder.

The band line-up has been amazingly consistent since the
original core members of Jan Henrik Orme (vocals), Jon-Arne Vilbo (guitars) and
Thomas Anderson (keyboards and programming) started out and then added Michael
Kromer in 2001 (violin and mandolin), Kristian Torp in 2005 (bass) and Lars
Erik Asp in 2010 (drums). This line-up has been present on the last four studio
albums.

Molok has
been described by Thomas Anderson as “Molok
is about a man somewhere around 1920 that decides wherever anyone worships a
god, they always seem to be worshipping stone in one form or another. Whether a
grand cathedral, the stone in Mecca or even Stonehenge, god seems to have been
chased by his worshippers into stone, never to return. This harkens back to Norwegian
folk myths, where if a troll was exposed to sunlight, it would turn to stone,
but also reflects the way god has been incommunicado for a very long time.”
This sounds like very profound material, so what does the album actually sound
like?

Molok is
a 9 track release (on CD, but 8 tracks on vinyl) with a total running time of
around 45 minutes (44:37). The final track, “Molok Rising,” is the longest
track on offer at just less than 10 minutes (9:38) in length with track no 3,
“Beta Kiss,” the shortest on the album at 2:45 minutes.

The opening track on Molok
is “Park Bench” (6:44) which begins with a drum beat setting the scene. Jan
Henrik Ormes’ voice enters, instantly recognizable to all Gazpacho followers.
There is the characteristic minimalist instrumentation behind the voice with a
piano motif, keyboard theme and then the violin makes an entrance. The
atmosphere produced on this opening track is nothing short of majestic. As the
voice builds and retreats, the background shifts almost imperceptibly, but the
sheer power that seems held back by invisible forces constantly threatens to be
unleashed. The amazing ability of the band to generate such controlled
atmospherics has to be admired. The band then work as a tight unit to take the
track out.

“The Masters Voice” (4:08) picks up the atmospherics from
the word go. The plaintive voice is backed by a gentle electric guitar and a
choir which leads into a stunning section led by the bass and drums, with the
piano generating more of the simple, but fascinating, themes. This is a slow
building track which moves along with the voice, more of the electric guitar
and a little more intensity to the music, when without warning it drops away to
almost silence before re-entering and building, before ultimately, exiting.

Track 3 is a very different style of track. “Bela Kiss”
(2:45) is an up-tempo folky toe-tapper which also has Stian Carstensen on
accordion. This is a short track which highlights the folk charm which is never
too far away from the surface on any Gazpacho release.

Back to the atmospherics with the next track up, “Know
Your Time” (6:07) which starts with a longer introduction of bass, drums and
keyboards as it slowly builds to the entrance of the vocals, almost 1:30
minutes into the track. The vocals are crystal clear and there is a little more
of the gentle electric guitar carrying the music along. Around the 2:30 minute
point you become aware of the presence of the piano theme in the background as
the music flows effortlessly along. A deeper, darker section starts up around
the 3:40 minute mark which allows more guitar and piano to come to the fore.
The track is escorted out by some stunning violin playing by Michael.

There is a piano start to “Choir of Ancestors” (4:44)
before being joined by Jan Henrik and the rhythm unit of bass and drum move the
track along. A “distant” voice appears around the 1:30 minute mark and this is
followed by a choir, which builds behind the lead voice, with the drums
appearing impatient to be moving quicker. This all leads to a guitar led “wall
of noise,” but for Gazpacho that is a fairly subdued level. This track is
another example of how to generate atmosphere within a short piece of music.
The track ends with the sound dropping away and a little more of the “distant”
voice.

Next up is a trio of shorter tracks, all within the 3-4
minute timescale. First up is “ABC” (3:26) which is a very melodic up-tempo
track and this is followed by “Algorithm” (3:10) with an almost jazzy styled
feel to it initially before it settles into a shorter slice of atmospherics,
with some vocalization, but no words. The last of the trio, “Alarm” (3:54) is
another up-tempo chunk of music highlighting piano and keyboards with superb
vocals from Jan Henrik. Piano themes abound both in the background and leading
the piece as the track progresses.

The final, and longest, track on Molok, “Molok Rising” (9:38) is the albums’ tour de force. The
introduction of the track is very simple but generates a majestic atmosphere as
the track builds with, seemingly, the minimum of effort. This track highlights
the fantastic ability the band possesses enabling them to paint amazing aural
landscapes without losing the minimalistic feel to the music. Piano, keyboards,
guitar, mandolin, bass, drums and violin interact so perfectly and seamlessly.

Molok is
a stunning album and easily achieves the maximum star rating that its’
predecessor, Demon, garnered. This is
a superb example of the stunning atmospheric music that can be produced by 6
musicians who are acutely sympathetic to each other. Do not expect shredding
guitars, thundering drums and blistering vocals on a Gazpacho album, as the
band have everything down to a fine art and generate something very special
each and every time they enter the recording studios.

This is an album that further cements Gazpacho as a
unique band in modern progressive music. My advice is made very simple by Molok, and that is, get out there and
buy it. There have been a few albums that I have given the accolade, “one of
the best releases in 2015” to, and Molok can
now be added to that list.